Planning4People

The planning system was invented to help provide a good home, for everyone, in a healthy, thriving place. But in the last few decades something has goneÂ badly wrong. Instead of having peopleâ€™s welfare as its priority, nowadays the English planning system puts economic growth above all else. What has this achieved? All over the country working people canâ€™t afford to buy a home. People on benefits are forced to move hundreds of miles away because there are no affordable rented homes where they live. And local councils are unable to refuse permission for developments that they know will harm their communities.

As planning becomes more deregulated and less about meeting peopleâ€™s needs for homes, green spaces, and attractive towns, cities and villages, we think it is time to put people back at the heart of planning. How can this be done? The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)Â set this out in the Planning4People Manifesto.Â Planning4People brings together a powerful coalition of like-minded people and organisations to work to change planning for the better. Read the manifesto â€“ and become a supporter of Planning4People by emailing the TCPAÂ at:Â planning4people@tcpa.org.uk

Planning4People is an educational and awareness-raising collaboration between the TCPA andÂ the Webb Memorial Trust with the aim of re-creating social town planning in order to build a better society for everyone.

Check out the short Planning4People film featuring Kate Henderson and Hugh Ellis from the TCPA, and Professor Cecilia Wong of the University of Manchester, discussing how planning can transform people’s lives.